Pilots typically rely on both ground references and instruments when navigating from one point to another. Aircraft flying at 35,000 feet generally rely more on instruments while helicopters flying at 500 feet typically rely more on ground references. During approach and landing, they may rely more on ground references if the weather permits.
The approach to landing and touch down on the runway of an aircraft is probably the most challenging task a pilot undertakes during normal operation. To perform the landing properly, the aircraft approaches the runway within an envelope of attitude, course, speed, and rate of descent limits. The course limits include, for example, both lateral limits and glide slope limits. An approach outside of this envelope can result in an undesirable positioning of the aircraft with respect to the runway, resulting in possibly discontinuance of the landing attempt.
In some instances visibility may be poor during approach and landing operations, resulting in what is known as instrument flight conditions. During instrument flight conditions, pilots rely on instruments, rather than visual references, to navigate the aircraft. Even during good weather conditions, pilots typically rely on instruments to some extent during the approach. However, the pilot must transition from instruments to ground references at some point during landing.
The next generation of aircraft synthetic vision systems, or display systems in general, will use photo realistic textures on the terrain and other three dimensional objects such as buildings. However, photo realistic presentations can add clutter (information overload), thereby impeding a pilot's recognition and understanding of the object or objects being displayed.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for improving the ability of the pilot to comprehend displayed photo realistic textures of the terrain and other objects during navigation of the aircraft. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.